Caragh Keen | Super Keen: How to solve your own problem

In today’s episode, we hear from Caragh Keane, founder of SUPERKEEN. A shock lupus diagnosis in 2021 turned her world upside down and sparked a radical shift in her lifestyle. 

Refusing to settle for a life dependent on medication and steroids, Caragh took matters into her own hands—turning to food as a tool for healing. What followed was not just a personal transformation, but the birth of SUPERKEEN: a brand on a mission to make healthier, natural food options more accessible, supporting gut health and nourishing the body from the inside out.

Tune in as Caragh shares how adversity became her launchpad, why she believes food is powerful medicine, and what it really takes to build a business with purpose.

Caragh’s advice:

• When you’re new to entrepreneurship, it’s ok not to know everything, eg. sales forecasting
• Don’t strive for perfection straight away because you’ll disappoint yourself; instead, learn and grow steadily
• As you work on building a business, take good care of your own health at the same time
• Story-telling is vital in spreading your message and your mission
• Use a timeline to illustrate why and how you have developed as you have
• In sharing your motives you will allow others to share their own stories, and to identify with you
• Being yourself is not self-promotion, it’s inclusive and brings others in
• Find time to congratulate yourself on your achievements

FF&M enables you to own your own PR & produces podcasts.
Recorded, edited & published by Juliet Fallowfield, 2024 MD & Founder of PR & Communications consultancy for startups Fallow, Field & Mason.  Email us at hello@fallowfieldmason.com or DM us on instagram @fallowfieldmason. 

FF&M recommends: 

• LastPass the password-keeping site that syncs between devices.
• Google Workspace is brilliant for small businesses
• Buzzsprout podcast 'how to' & hosting directory
• Canva has proved invaluable for creating all the social media assets and audio bites.

MUSIC CREDIT Funk Game Loop by Kevin MacLeod.  Link &  Licence

Transcript

Juliet: [00:00:00] Welcome to How to Start Up, the podcast where we share real stories behind the startups told by the founders themselves hosted by me, Juliet Fallowfield, founder of Fallow Field & Mason, where we teach you how to own your PR and produce your own podcast. In today's episode, we hear from Caragh Keane founder of Super Keen. A Shock lupus diagnosis in 2021, turned her world upside down and sparked a radical shift in her lifestyle, refusing to settle for a life dependent on medication and steroids, Caragh took matters into her own hands. This is a common theme for our How to start up guests, but she was turning to food as a tool for healing. 

Keep listening as Cara shares how adversity became her launchpad, why she believes food is a powerful medicine, and what it really takes to build a brand with purpose. 

 Hi Cara, thank you so much for joining How to Start Up, before we get into all things around your business, I'd love to hear a little bit about you and the business that you [00:01:00] started.

Caragh: Amazing. thank you so much for having me on. I'm excited to be here. and yes, so I am the founder of Super Keen, and we have launched three cereals. And it's been born out of my own kind of health struggles with my autoimmune condition. I was diagnosed around four years ago, and I'm a school teacher and it really came out of the blue and essentially, my symptoms were so severe it left me bedbound.

and I wasn't willing to just accept that kind of, lifetime of steroid cycling and potential chemotherapy. So I really wanted to just. research how I could get my health back. and I'm a bit of a research nerd, so I started researching everything about gut health and overall wellness.

And essentially, just started to make changes to my life, that really started to help heal, myself, and I'm really fortunate at this stage. I'm not on anything,any medications to help manage my lupus, but it's just changes I've maybe made to diet and lifestyle. [00:02:00] And, upon my research over the last four years, I realized actually, I couldn't reach for a brand in the stores that didn't give me ingredient anxiety.

Everything had processed ingredients, they were refined and they were just made from real rubbish ingredients. So, it kind of set me on a mission to, to create something that everyone could reach for without feeling anxious, with ingredients that you didn't have to question. and so I Set myself a mission to, to create the cleanest cereal possible for people. and yeah, it's been a four year journey. I'm really grateful for where I'm at the moment. and we've launched into a number of retailers and yeah, we're just excited to develop more products. and I hope that kind of explained how we've got this point over four years.

Juliet: Congratulations, 'cause you are still a relatively young brand. To launch a brand that's recognized so quickly is amazing. But what I love about this is that pretty much every single guest on How to Start Up, and we've had over a hundred now, has always created something to [00:03:00] solve their own problem.

And I think that's the same for me. I wanted to demystify PR and storytelling and enable people to own their own pr, and it was a problem that I was seeing in my industry, a lot of people not respecting PR and wanting it, but not doing it or doing anything about it. so many founders get faced with a problem in their life and then want to fix it for others.

For you, what has been that most rewarding part of this four years? 

Caragh: I think it was, taking that leap to launch the brand. And I love how you mentioned, how founders are driven by that purpose because it really does keep you going. There was times where I was, waking up at crazy hours before teaching to work on the brand before taking the leap to launch.

When you have that kind of passion and it's something that you feel like you need, or you know, With the Super Keen as well. It didn't feel like work, it felt like it was something that I would happily talk hours about, about health and wellness, about ingredients. [00:04:00] so it really drove me to spend that time whilst teaching to work on the brand.

So I'd say the most kind of rewarding part of this stage I think some of the, retail listings that we managed to get, have been incredible. but I think just essentially being able to launch the brand and launching into Whole Foods and Planet Organic and Selfridges, was yeah, really rewarding.

And it felt like, oh, actually, the four years of, that work have led to this moment, which was really surreal to see it on the shelves. I think that was, yeah, a very emotional moment for me.

Juliet: I'm sure, and it was actually Laura from Seep, she said she just spent the night before the podcast driving around North London Tesco's just to look at this product in store on the shelves. And then the guy, David Abramovich from Grind said the same, is you never get sick of walking into a Sainsbury's and seeing your product on those shelves.

And then he neat up a bit and just check the pricing's right and all this stuff, but it's your baby. You know, you worked so hard on this, but just backing up a bit like [00:05:00] for you to be faced with such a serious medical condition to then step away from traditional, or I'd say prescribed medication.

What were some of the first steps that you took when you decided not to rely on that long-term medication or steroids? 

Caragh: Yeah, totally. I think, I'm really fortunate to be surrounded by, some incredible people, whether it's my mom or a family friend who is a doctor, and they're very passionate about healing yourself through food. So I've always been surrounded by that and, the ability of the body to heal itself.

it is one of those things where it probably wasn't like a leap to just, no medication. I am very aware at how important. steroids and, immunosuppressants can be for people struggling, but it was very much so reading up as much as I could on, gut health and wellness.

and there was, so many incredible books, about it, you know, whether it's. The Wahls Protocol, or like When the Body Says No, that's by Dr. Gabor Maté. so I just really took that time [00:06:00] to educate myself on, why is my body,doing this and just looking, 

To the deeper root of it all. and making those changes for, reaching for,really healthy fats when I can, eating really whole foods, staying away from processed foods and testing out whether, alcohol or caffeine, taking that out my diet, is that gonna have a positive impact?

And it has been a lot of trial and error. and I'm really fortunate to have people around me that, were very supportive of that and helping me educate myself with that. And there, yeah, it, it's, it was a big journey, but definitely focusing on gut health. I was that person, reaching for the bone broth or, making myself like, avocado, turmeric smoothie, just really anti-inflammatory.

 it's something I'm just really passionate about and I know even today, if I go off kilter with my routine, then I start having a flare up. So it's something I do have to manage on a daily basis, but so grateful for where I am at the moment.

Juliet: That's incredible. 'cause it, it does make [00:07:00] perfect sense that your body is like a car. You put fuel in, if you put the wrong fuel in, your car won't perform very well. I did manage at university to drive six hours on diesel instead of petrol. And then I got home and I was like, why does the car not start?

And yeah, we won't go any further with that one. But I am obsessed with gut health because when I was living in Sydney, I got, it was a bacterial gut infection and it crippled me, it took away my energy, it stopped me wanting to be sociable. I couldn't exercise anymore. And friends, like what's happened to you?

Like you seem not yourself in any shape or form. And eventually my GP Twig that I picked up this bacterial gut infection from a trip to Vietnam, and she's like the world experts in Australia. We'll operate, it'll be fine. But I have from then on in been so attuned to what. I'm not in any way perfect, but what I'm putting in, and it's up to me and I'm responsible for that.

'cause it makes such an impact. And when you are running a business, you need as much energy as you possibly can have. You've got to sleep well, you've got to look after [00:08:00] yourself. And the recent episodes, actually, as much as we've been talking about sales, everyone's you've got to look after yourself first.

You've gotta put yourself first, rest, sleep, water. You treat yourself like a child basically. 

Caragh: And it's really hard. 

Juliet: Yeah, it's so hard 'cause you are doing all these things. But for you on that, healing journey, what was the tipping point when you realized that your personal healing journey could become a business?

Because that's quite a dramatic move into giving up salary and all of that.

Caragh: Totally. And I think it was through my own research and seeing, my symptoms improve, and chatting to a lot of people as well, whether it's, on Instagram or, at some food events I was starting to go to and realize actually everyone is on their own health journey and it's. It can be really hard.

and talking to people is one of the most important things you can do. And sharing your story really helps other people. and that alongside of my struggle of finding foods in stores just made me [00:09:00] realize, actually this is something that I felt like I really needed. So it it didn't feel that scary at that time.

Now I think back and I'm like, oh my God, some of the things I did, it was very ballsy. It is, thinking back. but it just 

felt like I needed to do it. It really felt like I needed to do it, yeah.

Juliet: Yeah, absolutely. I love that because also it's Super Keen It's such a powerful, strong brand name. It sounds so cheerful and like you could just do anything. And I imagine that when you feel depleted and not yourself having something that you found to boost you up, it's like superwoman, branding, which is fantastic.

so what does Super Keen 

actually 

offer and how is it different from the other health food brands that are on the market?

Caragh: Yeah, absolutely. So we are the first cereal, to be made from super nutrient dense ingredients, including tiger nuts and cassava flour. they were chosen specifically, I'd [00:10:00] been reading up on them about four years ago on Tiger Nuts. Have you heard of Tiger Nuts at all?

Juliet: Never. 

Caragh: They're amazing. So they are this, they're actually part of the Tuber family, so similar to a sweet potato. They're grown underground and we source ours from Spain. And I remember reading that a handful of tiger nuts has the same vitamin E as six avocados. So they are really, high in fiber and resistant starch.

So keeps you full for longer, helps with digestion and feeds that good gut bacteria. And the ancient Egyptians used to just think of them as this sacred food. And I remember thinking, these are amazing. we need to be utilizing this ingredient. so I was reading up about them four years ago, and just

really was amazed by the health benefits that both those flowers have and how inclusive they were. So no matter what your dietary requirements are, essentially you can reach for these, and enjoy them. And so that's something I was reaching for on my health journey as I was healing myself. and [00:11:00] so yeah, our cereal is created from those two base ingredients and then the coating's all natural, organic.

So coconut oil, date syrup, and coconut sugar. And so essentially the cleanest cereal on the market. So there's only five or six natural organic ingredients. We're the first AIP friendly brand in the UK which stands for Autoimmune Protocol. so that's a way of eating that a lot of people, the autoimmune conditions reach for, just to eliminate any potential inflammatory triggers in their diets.

So that's something I'm really proud of. Yeah, we're essentiallythe first of its kind in that sense in terms of ingredients, and inclusivity and just, yeah, really proud,to have been the first to create that.

Juliet: Does it taste nice? This is the other question. 

Caragh: Well, 

that is the question. Do you know what's been really important on this whole journey is the food events we've been going to. So, even before launching, I spent a year dragging my mom and sisters along to every food event we could To [00:12:00] sample the product and it was so positive and the feedback was so great that was the, it felt messy at the time, but that really led me to have that knowledge and, feedback to launch the product as it was.

I was happy with it. And, I'm really happy, like with the crunch and the flavor and and the fact that it's just not about anything artificial. So yeah, we'll have to send you a load of boxes.

Juliet: no, because this is the, it is always the kind of assumption that if anything is good for you, it doesn't taste nice. But if you've managed to do both, I think you've absolutely won. And how did you go from that idea of knowing what you needed for your body to developing a product range? Because I think launching a product-based business is probably.

I know it's a lot harder than launching a service based business. For me, I opened my laptop day one, and I could go. For you to launch a product, that's quite a long lead time. So how did you develop that product range? 

Caragh: So, upon doing research into ingredients and, what, the cleanest cereal could [00:13:00] potentially look like, I actually applied for an innovation grant with, a company called the Growth Hub, with the University of Manchester. and I was awarded the grant, which was really incredible.

So it was like 5,000 pounds to kickstart this research, which included working with an extruder. University in Manchester, alongside an amazing kind of food scientist who helped, work the extrusion machine. 'cause  

Juliet: What's an extruder? 

Caragh: of 

It is a really incredible machine.

Where essentially the flour, is put into it. So ours was, that includes cassava flour and tigernut flour and it undergoes the pressure to create a popped ball. yeah, it is, it's a really incredible machine. andmy knowledge is improving on it, but it is definitely, yeah, the food scientist.

 he was incredible at supporting with that, the whole machinery part.

Juliet: We're taking a quick 30 second break from this episode to ask, are you thinking of starting your own podcast? If so, this is great news because we run a course that will [00:14:00] train you how to produce your own podcast yourself. This course is for people who do not want to outsource and pay someone else to do it.

You want to learn how to do it yourself. We teach you everything that you need to get up and running with your own podcast show, and so much more. Just DM us at hello at Fallowfield Mason, to book your spot.

It's so funny, everything you learn when you run your own business are things that you never thought you needed to know, but you are really grateful you've learned. But so many people say, if you told me today what I'd needed to get through to get to today, I wouldn't have done it. But I'm glad I've done it and I've learned all sorts of weird, wonderful tech hacks or more about people.

And what for you has surprised you the most about being your own boss?

Caragh: Oh, that's a really great question. I suppose with the kind of the food side of it, I had pitched to Whole Foods, last year, and I didn't even know you needed to go through a wholesaler for certain retailers. So my business knowledge of the food [00:15:00] industry was just, it wasn't a thing.

I just had the passion driving me. And so I can't even tell you how much I've learned probably on the food safety, the food manufacturing side, the kind of the sales retail side of things. and I'm still learning, daily as I'm sure you are. So I think. yeah, that's, all of those things are just, they've been very new to me.

and I think I was really worried to start with that. I didn't have enough knowledge in all these areas, but you just learn really fast. And it's okay to not know certain things. Which I think has really helped me on this journey. 'cause at times you just feel out of your depth with so many things, whether it's the sales forecasting, gosh, the financial side of the business, as a school teacher, definitely out my comfort zone.

But you do, you're thrown in the

deep end and you do get there, yeah. 

Juliet: Oh, I loved this 'cause it was, I interviewed Lucy from hair syrup [00:16:00] and she'd gone viral on TikTok and is standing through TikTok shop and she's 24.

Juliet: Yeah, but so young and I was interviewing her, I just never want to be patronizing to the age gap between us, but I have so much respect for her to have achieved so much so young.

She's like, no one tells you this. No one tells you that. It's like, at least I've got 20 years work experience working for other people to have some informed, knowledge of HR or budgets or stuff like that. But to go in straight in and you do learn that everyone says, you sink or swim and if you wanna swim and you wanna.

Sorry. Dedicate time to your business. You'll work it out. And you also ask people for help, which is what this podcast is for me. What has been the biggest challenge in building Super Keen so far?

Caragh: oh, the biggest challenge. I think, as we're talking about health and wellness, it's for me, a big part of the journey has been still managing my health whilst being pulled in all directions. and I remember someone mentioning to me that striving perfection [00:17:00] can become

self-sabotage and actually progressive affection is what you need to be striving for and especially as well with health. And you need to give yourself kind of that grace to do that and not be ticking all those boxes. So I think that side of it, on a personal level, managing my lupus flares alongside the business, and as I talk to so many people on this journey so far, which

it's my favorite aspect of, what I do, is that everyone is on their own health journey and, managing, work, family life,life just throws spanners in the works constantly, actually looking after yourself can be the last thing you do. and so I think I definitely.

Was one to just be a bit of a workaholic and it's just managing that alongside, the brand, which has beendefinitely a challenge at times, especially probably, as I was balancing teaching as well.

Juliet: The balance thing it's the million dollar quest of learning that work-life [00:18:00] balance. And it was actually David Abramovich, his question for the next guest was like, work-life balance. I'm like coming from you, like you've built grind. This is, from the outside in, he's super successful, but even he was struggling with that juggle, because also you really like your job, so it's quite hard to kind of laptop down when you just, oh, just one more email, just one more thing.

It's very hard 

Caragh: So 

Juliet: to do it. 

Caragh: Yeah.

what role has storytelling in your personal journey played in building your brand's visibility? I.Oh, I'd say it's been everything. It really has and I think, I'm really grateful to have, I've had the opportunities I've had so far to, get our story out there and the brand values and vision. But, to me it's been, gosh, even from pitching to Whole Foods, and I've been,I always bring a little timeline with me, to show the journey I've been on over four years.

and it's something that I just think is really important, because it does drive every decision I make and you know [00:19:00] why I am doing what I'm doing. and yeah, I remember during my pitch to Whole Foods and at that time we hadn't been ready to launch. It was a crazy thing for me to be doing. I remember being a bit emotional during the pitch because it does feel very raw, some aspects of being so poorly.

But, then actually the buyer opened up to me about her health journey and it's just, it really helps people to share their story as well. 

And it's all about that connection with people. is been a huge part of kind of the brand journey.

So I'm really grateful to be able to share that and hopefully help people maybe going along in, a similar kind of health journey to me.

Juliet: Totally. also people can understand it sooner, and I think when I launched my business, it was off the back of redundancy, and I was so indignant. I went on LinkedIn, I was like, I'm gonna do my own thing. Sod that business. I can do it on my own. I have no idea what I'm doing. What am I doing?

What am I doing? But by being vulnerable and being open, so many people called me for [00:20:00] advice. And I saw your LinkedIn posts, what's going on? How can I help? And I was like, I haven't had to ask for help before in my career. This is novel. And then the podcast was born and I wouldn't have it any other way.

So that. Being yourself, owning it thing other people can feel like they can come along with you, which I think is super important with storytelling. and just on top of that, how have you approached PR within that storytelling framework? How have you gone after growing that brand awareness?

Caragh: Yeah, and I think it's been,been so grateful for, we've had some moments with whether it's kind of podcasts or being able to have a breakfast launch morning and just get people who are like-minded and, wanting to have that better kind of breakfast option. and everyone to share

kind of their story as well. so it's been a really huge part of our journey and I think I kind of was hesitant before launching when I had been thinking about how we're going to launch [00:21:00] and, I'm actually quite a shy person and very kind of private growing up. It seemed to me, I was thinking, oh my God, I don't wanna be just talking about myself all the time, but I just had to just take a step back from No, it's, it's not like being the center of attention, it's actually sharing that health journey that people might relate to.

And so many people reach out to me, and mention, they've got lupus or, thank you for sharing Your experience with alopecia and things like that. And that kind of just makes me feel like, oh, it's it's less scary to be vulnerable when it's helping people. So that is definitely, yeah, something that has driven me for sure.

Especially as we've been really fortunate to have some kind of really great PR moments over the last two months. and the shy side of me is like, oh my gosh, but it's all for the mission of. Of, getting that story out there to hopefully help others.

Juliet: Yeah, it overcomes that imposter thought of, who am I to do this? It's like I have to, someone's got to do it. God, I did a [00:22:00] TEDx talk last year and I had to practice what I was preaching of,I'm gonna need my storytelling and I'm really passionate about this topic. I'm gonna have to do it.

And I just thought, this is so much work and time out of the business to get this talk ready, but I did it. And I did it and I was proud of it and I was like, it's done now. I never have to do that again. But it was so worth doing. It was just, you've got to practice what you preach. and something that we do with our guests is we always have a question from our previous guest for the next guest.

we interviewed, Lauren Currie OBE, who founded Upfront, who's upskilling 10 million women, in business. Utterly amazing woman. Her question for you, and she was really honest about the loneliness and managing your energy and looking after yourself. So I think you two would get on brilliantly, but her question for you is, when did you last want to quit and what stopped you quitting?

Which I thought was amazing.

Caragh: Oh gosh, probably daily. do you know, I find that, there's certain big moments if you work towards, within the [00:23:00] food world, whether it's a food event. and I do love putting my all into it and going myself and meeting and chatting to people. And there's moments where, you know, 

If you're traveling and yeah, it can be quite lonely and you're trying to balance a number of things. And I think, yeah, there's definitely often those moments of, feeling, that loneliness, that overwhelming feeling, but just seeing how far you've come in the space of, I could have never dreamed this time last year I was teaching.

So to have a brand that's in stores, and hopefully more products to come. taking that moment to just see what you've been able to achieve and also to connect with people that you're doing it for. I'm always on Instagram replying to as many messages as I can because, reading that ,

on a similar journey or,that speaking out has helped them, really just makes it all worthwhile. So I think those things really keep me on track, 'cause it's difficult. I think you can forget [00:24:00] what you've been, you're just sitting and seeing the next milestone and the stress of achieving that, but seeing, those things that you've managed to do.

Yeah. It keeps you going. Definitely.

Juliet: For sure. And I think that's again, quite interesting. These last couple of episodes have all been quite honest about not glamorizing how hard you have to work to achieve what you want to achieve. And there's a favorite quote and I can't remember who said it, but basically saying how. Work now how others won't so you can live life in the future, how others can't, or something like that.

As in put in the hard yards now and then the other one that's the favorite, Alex Hormozi, is that everyone will be jealous of the destination, not the journey it took you to get there, which I think is bang on. 

Caragh: I think social media can be really, there's so many positives with it, but a lot of the time, you're not seeing those, late nights just getting through it or, just yeah, the panic mode that you are probably in 80% of the time,  

Juliet: stops with you. Ultimately, you are on the way to a trade show. There's a IT [00:25:00] glitch, there's a customer shouting about something and it all lands on your shoulders and you're like 

Caragh: Everything,

everything that can go wrong will go wrong.

I know we were at, do you know what, at a last week and and even getting the. the popup ready I'd ordered this hanging Super Keen arch and I was like, this, do you know what? I'm so excited for this. We hung it up and then came back for the first day of the event.

It literally just collapsed on the floor and I just thought, you know what? These things,they're always gonna happen. You've just gotta roll with it and not get hung up on those details. and it 

ended up being a lovely event. No one had even noticed there wasn't a sign that was meant to be there.

Just me.

Juliet: It is so funny you say that. 'cause Francesca and my team, we've been talking about the fact that we record remotely. We're not in a studio. And I was like, I do need to, I've moved house, I need to make sure the backdrop for me is clean and professional. And I was like, perhaps I'll just hang a curtain behind my desk, which I did this morning finally.

'cause today's podcast day and I was always drilling into the [00:26:00] ceiling or an hour before the first recording. It's like. What happens if this falls down halfway through a recording? Touch wood, it's still there, but it's one of those things you're like, it doesn't 

matter. It doesn't, don't sweat the small stuff. Shit happens, 

but you roll with it.

Yeah. 

Caragh: So true.

Juliet: What would your question be for our next guest? It could be anything on entrepreneurship. 

Caragh: I think it probably would be. I've got so many questions that's my problem as well. I will, I always have so many questions. 

I do like when I think if they could turn back time, would they do anything differently? And I know that's something that you ask as well on your podcast, but I do think it's something that's quite an interesting thing to ask.

I know, it is such a journey owning your own business and lots of mistakes, but, Yeah, it'd be interesting to know if there's anything, your next guest would've done differently in hindsight. yeah, so maybe [00:27:00] I think that would be, a question for you guest.

Juliet: Thank you so much. It's been wonderful chatting to you, Caragh and best of luck with everything Super Keen. May you go on to even more successes, but so excited to see this product on the market and I know your customers are so grateful to you, so thank you for all of your hard work.

Caragh: That means a lot. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Juliet: If you'd like to contact Caragh, you can find her details in the show notes along with a recap of the advice that she has so kindly shared.